Sermons to Young Women
# Sermons to Young Women

Sermons to Young Women (1766), often called Fordyce's Sermons, is a two-volume compendium of sermons compiled by James Fordyce, a Scottish Presbyterian clergyman, which were originally delivered by himself and others. They were intended for a primarily female audience.

Fordyce was considered an excellent orator, and his collection of sermons found a ready audience among English clergy and laity alike. It quickly became a staple of many Church and personal libraries.

## References in other works

In the novel Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen, Mr Collins, a clergyman, attempts to read the book aloud to the women during a visit to the Bennet household. The youngest of the five Bennet daughters, Lydia, interrupts him "before . . . three pages" leading him to stop reading, with the comment, "how little young ladies are interested by books of a serious stamp, though written solely for their benefit. It amazes me, I confess;—for certainly, there can be nothing so advantageous to them as instruction."

Additionally in the 1775 play The Rivals, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Fordyce's sermon on Sobriety is mentioned.

